Father accused of forcing young man to marry his teenage daughter

A Melbourne father is accused of threatening to kill a young man unless he married his teenage daughter, and then after the wedding having the groom pledge $450,000 as surety in case he fled.

A County Court jury was on Thursday shown footage from a 2015 wedding in which the groom in a black dinner suit smiled, hugged and kissed a bride wearing a yellow dress. The girl was at the time 15 and the man 22.

The video features footage of the couple smiling at the camera and at each other, and among the phrases interspersed are the lines "We'll be forever", "Life is wonderful" and "Feel your love".

But prosecutors allege that despite his smile, the groom was forced into marrying the girl, by the teenager's father, Majed Mamosi.

Majed Mamosi.Credit:Joe Armao

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They allege Mr Mamosi threatened to kill the young man, and the young man's family in Iran, unless he married the girl.

Mr Mamosi, 44, of Broadmeadows, has pleaded not guilty to the federal offence of causing a person to enter into a forced marriage.

His lawyer told the first day of the trial that his client denied threatening the young man, and that there were doubts over the solemnisation of the marriage service.

Prosecutor Shaun Ginsbourg said the young man and the girl met on the app BeeTalk in September 2014 and went on several dates, and introduced each other to their families.

But later that year, Mr Ginsbourg said, the young man went to the Mamosi home and the girl's father brandished two kitchen knives and chased him outside, and then smashed up the young man's car.

In the following weeks Mr Mamosi told the young man he would have to pay him $12,000 or avoid the debt by marrying the girl.

"The accused threatened to kill (the man) if he did not comply," Mr Ginsbourg said.

The young man said he didn't want to marry Mr Mamosi's daughter as it was against his wishes. The following day, the court heard, Mr Mamosi told him he knew where his family lived in Iran and would have them killed unless there was a marriage.

"He believed these threats and at that point he told the accused he would marry (the girl)," the prosecutor said.

The wedding took place on January 2, 2015 at Greenvale Recreation Centre and in the video played to the jury Mr Mamosi congratulates the bride and groom.

The newlyweds stayed at the Mamosi home but were never intimate, the court heard, and Mr Mamosi and his wife often slept in the same room.

Mr Ginsbourg said Mr Mamosi had his new son-in-law sign an IOU document stating he had borrowed $450,000 from the girl and pledged he would repay the money. The document, the prosecutor said, was security in case the groom ever ran away.

The groom eventually fled to Queensland and contacted police midway through 2015. The couple were divorced later that year.

Prosecutors argue that guilty pleas Mr Mamosi entered before a magistrate to charges of criminal damage, making threats to kill and inflict serious injury, and assault - for bashing the young man's uncle - are admissions that he forced the young man to marry the girl.

The young man's credibility and reliability as a witness would be a key issue in the trial, Mr Kilduff said, and there were questions over whether the marriage ceremony was solemnised under sharia law.

Mr Kilduff said the service was not a wedding but an engagement service, he said.